printEC Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA)
With a view to abolishing trade barriers for vehicles in the single market, national operating licence procedures are gradually being replaced by vehicle type approval procedures that are valid across all EU member states. The EC WVTA system was introduced in the 1990s for the vehicle category M1, i.e. vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers and comprising no more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s seat. Application of the WVTA system was initially confined to passenger cars but was also extended to motor caravans assigned to vehicle class M1 on 1st October 1998. The EU-wide standardization of registration is of great interest to the export-oriented German manufacturers of motor caravans.
Motor caravans, as “special-purpose” vehicles of category M1, are exempt from many individual regulations to which pure M1-category vehicles are subject, as the commercial vehicle chassis used as a base cannot meet the stringent M1-regulations with regard to e.g. brakes, noise and emissions.
Since 29 April 2009, the new Directive, 2007/46/EC also allows caravans that fall into vehicle category O2 to be registered for the first time via vehicle type approval, albeit initially on a voluntary basis. This will do away with costly national registration procedures. It will also enable German manufacturers with a strong export orientation to make registrations at a high level of safety standardized across Europe, under easier administrative conditions. In addition, the EU-wide vehicle type approval procedure is being extended to all trailers, buses and lorries.
